ABSTRACT
The responsible provision of assisted reproductive technologies, including in vitro fertilization, requires detailed coordination among medical, scientific, and administrative staff. Staff responsibilities include maintaining highly specialized equipment and technology; assisting patients in treating current conditions and preserving future fertility; and remaining vigilant in managing ethical and legal dilemmas as they arise. In two recent high-profile cases, technical failures and lapses in team communication and execution led to the irretrievable loss of thousands of vitrified oocytes and embryos. Such events can immediately impact thousands of individuals, whose family-building ability may be drastically altered or rendered altogether impossible. Indeed, one unique aspect of reproductive medicine is that untoward effects can harm current and future generations, giving rise to complex and controversial claims, such as the wrongful death of “embryonic life.” As such, these cases can highlight profound questions in this field: whether the loss of such biological material, legally construed as property, is ethically equivalent to human mortality; the ethical responsibility to counsel patients regarding the likelihood of such failures and prevent catastrophic outcomes; an ethical framework for communicating such a catastrophic error; and a justice-based assessment of the appropriate reparation for such a costly mistake.
